Ben Medansky Is A Ceramicist

Whenever we visit a new retail store, we always slip something in our back pocket to share. At 12345, it was the very lighthearted and well crafted ceramics of Ben Medansky. Medansky’s makes super delicate glass objects that have a very playful note to them much like 12345. We’re sure his work is going to be popping up in lots of places around town.

Medansky’s ceramics have a touch of earth to them as they resonate a rustic Southern Californian (or even native American) influence. There are terra cottas and vanilla bean glazes and even triline painted cups that look like updated Arizonan folk art. His most arresting pieces are items like the Cord Bowl (at top) and Terra Cotta Vessel 0050 (above). They both have a surreal quality to them: the Cord Bowl are a tangle of ceramic strings that are such a strange and wonderful tactile creation; Vessel 0050 melts in front of you, almost out of bashfulness that you think it’s cute. It’s all great stuff.

Ben makes a lot of more practical objects like bowls and cups and small plates but all of them still retain this element of youthful excitement to them. They’re fairly affordable too and can be picked up at 12345, Iko Iko, Crybaby, and Hemingway & Pickett. Definitely check out more of his work here.